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Roly Bain
Born
David Roualeyn Findlater Bain

(1954-01-18)18 January 1954
Died11 August 2016(2016-08-11) (aged 62)
NationalityEnglish
Occupations
  • Clown
  • priest
Known forClown ministry

David Roualeyn Findlater "Roly" Bain (18 January 1954 – 11 August 2016) was an English priest and clown who preached and performed as Holy Roly. He helped set up the organisation Holy Fools.

Early life and education

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His father was Kenneth Bruce Findlater Bain, a theatre critic who wrote under the name Richard Findlater.[1] His mother was Romany Bain, a freelance journalist. He was one of triplets. He attended St. Paul's School in West London, then read theology at Bristol University and Cuddesdon Theological College. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1978. In 1990 he spent a year at Fooltime (now Circomedia), a circus training college in Bristol, and became a professional clown.[2] He served in parallel as an associate vicar at St Mary the Virgin Church in Olveston.[3]

Career

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After serving as a parish priest, Bain decided to convey the Christian message through a different route, inspired by his lifelong love of clowns. His father had written a biography of the famous clown Joseph Grimaldi. As a young boy, Bain had loved the sad-faced clown Coco. So he took a clown's training and became a freelance clown-priest, presenting the Gospel message through jokes and pratfalls. He performed in churches, conference halls, hospitals, schools, football fields, and prisons. He would enter the venue on a unicycle, open with the invocation "Let us play!", and preach while balancing on (or falling from) a slackrope, a speciality of Bain.[3][4] Like Coco, Bain performed as an Auguste, a clumsy character who is on the receiving end of water buckets and accidents, and who often works as a foil to the more clever and arrogant stage personality of the white-faced clown. According to Bain, the Auguste role allowed him to provide a mirror to everyday personalities, if it was not too exaggerated.[5] He often took on the stock character roles of the Jester and the Vulnerable Lover.[6] He performed routines like juggling and egg-smashing and blew soap bubbles. According to his website, he had custard-pied ten bishops, and "most were grateful – or at least happy to play".[6]

Bain traced the origins of his clown ministry to the "holy fools" and "feasts of fools" of the Middle Ages, and quoted Saint Paul saying "We are fools for Christ". (1 Corinthians 4:10)[7] He was the only Church of England priest to work full-time as a clown. He once said, "That is the only sort of clowning I do: getting across the Christian message to different audiences in different ways".[8] He took his act to Europe, America, and Australia. He was partially supported by a non-profit organisation called The Faith and Foolishness Trust, which supports clown-priests.[3] In 1982, he helped to set up Holy Fools, an organisation to support clown ministry.[2] He was a member of both the College of Evangelists and Clowns International; at Clowns International he served as chaplain.[7]

He wrote several books: Fools Rush In (1993), Clowning Glory (1995, with Patrick Forbes), and Playing the Fool (2001), a memoir. In 1994, he was named Clown of the Year by Clowns International, and in 1999 he received Clowns International's Slapstick prize.[2][9]

Mentions in academic publications

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A 1996 German monograph by Angelika Richter and Lori Zonner in the Journal of Religion and Health, described by Marc Abrahams in his book This Is Improbable, called Bain the most prominent spiritual clown in England.[10][11] The "Clown" entry in the Encyclopedia of Christian Education mentions Bain, adding that clown ministry is "an authentic way of doing theology" which offers unique insights into the nature of God and humanity, and as such has been accepted by mainline denominations.[12] Sandra Billington's 2015 book A Social History of the Fool describes the inspirational aspects of the clownerie and its spread of "a kind of mental oxygen". She draws parallels between Bain celebrating the Christian court jester (for example, in his 2001 book) and similar publications such as 1999's The Corporate Fool, which advocates "creative folly" in the workplace.[13]

Personal life

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Bain married Jane Smith in 1984; they separated in 2008. The couple had two sons, Jack and Samuel Bain. He died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 62.[7]

Publications

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References

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  1. ^ "Richard Findlater". The Dan Leno Project. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "The Reverend Roly Bain, priest and clown – obituary". The Telegraph. 22 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  3. ^ a b c "Let us play: The Reverend Roly Bain, clown-priest, died on August 11th, aged 62". The Economist. 3 September 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  4. ^ Peacock, Louise (1 January 2009). Serious Play: Modern Clown Performance. Intellect Books. p. 161. ISBN 9781841502410.
  5. ^ Nelson, John (28 February 2008). How to Become a Creative Church Leader: A MODEM Handbook. Canterbury Press. pp. 17ff. ISBN 9781853118135.
  6. ^ a b "Why, What & Where". Roly Bain website. Archived from the original on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  7. ^ a b c Bates, Stephen (21 August 2016). "The Rev Roly Bain obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  8. ^ "Playing the fool for Christ". Church Times. 2 November 2006. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  9. ^ "Obituary: Reverend David 'Roly' Bain". The Sunday Times. 31 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  10. ^ Abrahams, Marc (7 March 2013). This is Improbable: Cheese String Theory, Magnetic Chickens and Other WTF Research. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9781851689750.
  11. ^ Abrahams, Marc (11 January 2010). "Clowning for Christ – dos and don'ts". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  12. ^ Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Mark A. (7 May 2015). Encyclopedia of Christian Education. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 302–303. ISBN 9780810884939.
  13. ^ Billington, Sandra (19 March 2015). A Social History of the Fool. Faber & Faber. pp. first page of the 2015 preface. ISBN 9780571299997.
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